Riches in niches
Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By David A Kolman
About 95 percent of Howell's Motor Freight's deliveries are by appointment. “We're very adept at coordinating appointments, schedules, shipments, and make those deliveries,” he goes on. “That's why a lot of companies see a value in delivering a few stops and then bringing the rest of their deliveries for us to handle.
“Shippers can maximize the cube on their outbound loads and put on any combination of stops and appointments since we're able to split the shipments onto as many different distribution trucks as needed, making the deliveries the next day or on the requested appointment times. Instead of shippers trying to adjust to make appointments work for delivery, they can give us advance notice of the orders.
Norris points out there also are increasing fines placed on shippers for missed appointments or delivery days. “We can help cut this expense through our relationships with the consignees.”
For most carriers, especially those not based in the Southeast, trying to deliver multi-stops to grocery houses and food stores on a linehaul basis can be a “major challenge,” says Bill Sanford, Howell's Motor Freight's vice president of sales and marketing. Uncontrollable variables include delays during customer deliveries, traffic congestion, and hours of service regulations.
“If a truck gets behind and misses an appointment, all the subsequent stops have to be rescheduled, and it's not very likely that they can be reschedule for the same day.
“Three-fourths of the battle in delivering cross dock LTL freight to distribution centers is having a standing appointment to make the delivery, and that's a real advantage Howell's has. Most other companies are fighting to get into a door to get it delivered based on when their trucks may get there.”
“Think of the efficiency these companies gain by shipping their orders to us on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, for us to deliver on Monday and Tuesday,” Norris says.
Typically, Howell's Motor Freight delivers all freight in less than 48 hours from the time it was picked up.
The company isn't in the business of warehousing. Rather, it provides short-term storage, done for pooling and cross dock operations, as part of the company's value-added services. However, its newest terminal in Atlanta has enough storage capacity - dry, cooler, and frozen - that the company is looking into developing a separate, for-profit warehousing operation.
Complementary operations
Each of the company's terminals is responsible for its profitability, as well as the truckload division, which operates from company headquarters. There is co-mingling of the terminal service and truckload business when necessary, to give the company greater flexibility, especially on the truckload side.
“A classic example of this would be where a truckload driver is unable to pick up a scheduled load,” says Sanford. “We send one of our terminal drivers to get that load and have him spot it at the terminal for the TL driver to pick it up later and still make the service. The operations complement one another. Whereas a traditional TL carrier might be based in Kansas and has limited equipment assets and operating ability to do that in our market niche.”
